214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



existed on my own farm in 1856, when I took possession of it. 

 That farm had been famous for its orchard. It was one of the 

 early orchard farms in the State of Massachusetts, and the trees 

 were all of rare quality. They were nearly all of them imported 

 by an ancestor of mine from England, and were the choicest 

 varieties then known in England ; what are known a* the " Gar- 

 den apple" — I doubt if it is ever seen outside of Essex County 

 — and the " Tickman Pippin," one of the finest apples for cook- 

 ing in the world, — a large, handsome, yellow apple, with a blush 

 on one side ; its acid as keen and lively as the cranberry, and 

 perhaps a little sharper. That apple was among those brought 

 over, and the reputation of that orchard was abroad over all 

 Eastern Massachusetts. All the connoisseurs and amateurs in 

 the place went there to get the best apples to be found. That 

 orchard was planted somewhere about the year 1810. It 

 occupied the best land on that farm, right around the barns, 

 which were large and ample. There "was one barn capable of 

 holding fifty or sixty cows, and the hay to feed them. Right 

 round that barn, the warmest, the mellowest, the best drained, 

 the finest land for all sorts of vegetables, especially for the 

 growing of onions, was occupied by these .orchards ; and much 

 of the best grass land of the farm, which is very fine indeed, 

 was occupied in the same way. These trees had stood there 

 nearly half a century when I took the place. For fifteen years 

 after they were planted, 1 find no record of the produce from 

 the trees ; I would not expect any ; but meanwhile it was nec- 

 essary, ill order that the trees might grow thriftily, that the 

 land should be kept up, and the farmers who occupied the farm 

 were deprived of the profit of getting their crops from the land 

 immediately adjoining the barnyard, and subjected to the ex- 

 pense of hauling the manure over a mile to other fields, in 

 order that these apple-trees might be kept in good condition. 

 Then I find an entry in the record of a certain year, after this 

 orchard was fifteen years old, that the tenants paid their rent 

 — which I think was $1,200 — from that orchard. It was con- 

 sidered a great feat on the part of the orchard, that it had paid 

 the rent of the farm ; but it was so rarely that it paid the rent 

 of the farm, that they thought it a matter worthy of historical 

 record. But only every other year, for the remaining years 



